Natural Mountain Gorilla Predators

Mountain gorillas’ are subspecies of primates and the largest in the whole world inhabiting the Virunga mountain slopes and Bwindi impenetrable forest national park in Uganda. There are less than 1000 individuals left in the world. Mountain gorillas move in social groups of 5-30 individuals dominated by a silverback who commands all the day to day activities, they are entirely herbivores feeding on leaves, bamboo shoot, stems, leaves, bark, with and 25% of their diet contains fruits. Gorillas also eat ants, termites and insects occasionally.

Mountain gorillas have a slow birth rate with females producing only 4-6 offsprings in a lifetime, the gestation period for females is 8 and a half months. Female mountain gorillas have only 1-2 fertile days in a month. The male mountain gorillas can access all the group females and during mating, it’s the female that follows the male when they are ready.

Predators of Mountain Gorillas

Leopards

Leopards in their range have the ability to kill mountain gorillas; they have the ability to kill an adult mountain gorilla with the help of their smart and big felines that can feed on meat from various animals.

Humans

Humans are the biggest predators of mountain gorillas other than leopards, people mainly poach gorillas for bushmeat to be consumed by prestigious folks who enjoy bush meat, they also poach gorillas for illegal pet trade as some people keep gorillas as pets or in private zoos, gorillas have also been poached by traditional healers with a believe that some parts of gorillas can be used as charms. Gorillas also die from traps being set from other animals like antelopes.